PILATES and lifestyle w/ and emphasis on food and DRINK

Many of you heard that one of my New Year’s goal is to cook through México: The Cookbook, written by Margarita Carrillo Arronte. It is a 681 page cookbook with recipes from all over México. I was going to start cooking yesterday, January 1st, but New Years Eve was a very exciting night that left me a little tired on the 1st.

So I started tonight! On the menu was Lentil & Chorizo Soup. Green lentils pictured above cooked with the delicious pork chorizo. It was a great smelling medley of onion and garlic. The best aspect was the olive oil and bit of balsamic vinegar I added at the end. I accidentally bought thelarge sized lentils at Whole Foods and I think they soaked up more water so I had to add a little more hot water at the end.

Next I made, for the first time in my entire life . . . corn tortillas! I made it from masa harina, water and a little salt. Upon reading the directions I realized I didn’t have a tortilla press. So I got out my rolling pin (I usually use it for rolling out my quads), gave it a wash and started to flour my workspace. My first couple tortillas were a mess.

I didn’t add enough water and they were stiff. I tried cooking them on the comal and they tasted and felt like cardboard. I kept adding a little more water to the batch, would roll another tortilla out, heat it up and taste it. By my fourth try I got something that was edible and actually quite good. All I had needed was a little more water in the masa and a little more oil on the comal.

The finale was the guacamole. I doubled the amount of avocado it called for, and could have diced the onion and tomato smaller. Hopefully through all this cooking my eyes will get stronger and I won’t cry at the sight of an onion. Andrew thought the tortilla was the best part of the whole night. That made my night.